{"id":25627,"date":"2021-12-16T07:27:35","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T10:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25627"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:52:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:52:53","slug":"legislators-ask-government-to-assist-vip-room-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/legislators-ask-government-to-assist-vip-room-employees","title":{"rendered":"Legislators ask government to assist VIP room employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three legislators have asked authorities to protect the labour rights of Macau residents who have been affected by the closure of VIP rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Three legislators have asked authorities to\u00a0formulate special procedures to protect the labour rights of workers who have been laid off due to the closure of\u00a0Suncity Group Holdings<\/a>‘ and other VIP rooms<\/a>\u00a0in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 1, Suncity Group Holdings decided to\u00a0close all of its VIP rooms in Macau<\/strong>\u00a0until further notice, following the\u00a0arrest of Alvin Chau Cheok Wa<\/a>\u00a0on cross-border gambling and money laundering accusations. A week ago,\u00a0Tak Chun<\/a>, the second-largest junket operator in Macau, also confirmed that some casino operators decided to temporarily suspend their partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Macau Business, legislator Ngan Iek Hang<\/strong>\u00a0said: “There is uncertainty regarding the progress of these cases involving prosecutors of game, therefore, many workers in the sector are concerned and uneasy about the possibility of becoming unemployed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: “The worst thing is that game promoters mostly hire people from the public relations, security and treasury areas, some of them are young, with academic qualifications.\u00a0Their technical skills and educational qualifications may make it harder to find new employment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislator Ella Lei Cheng I\u00a0<\/strong>mentioned the\u00a0Macau Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) initiative<\/a>\u00a0to provide consultation on labour rights to Suncity workers. However, she said some workers are unable to claim unemployment benefits as they haven’t received notification from the company about their dismissal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DSAL has opened a special counter to assist employees affected by the closure of Suncity\u2019s VIP rooms.\u00a0It provides labour rights consultation and registration support services for relevant workers. It also supplies job registration services and vocational training information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\u00a0legislator Jose Pereira Coutinho<\/strong>\u00a0said: “Suncity workers claim that DSAL has not acted proactively, putting up a front instead of immediately sending their inspectors to find out what is going on with the company after receiving such complaints.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: “To make matters worse,\u00a0this DSAL also forced them to present proof of dismissal\u00a0<\/strong>in order to have access to employment training.\u00a0How are workers going to get these proofs when almost all the heads of Suncity disappeared from the map and no one has the authority to sign the unfair dismissal declarations?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) and DSAL had previously said that\u00a0current laws protect the rights of employees<\/strong>\u00a0working in VIP rooms promoted by junkets.\u00a0However,\u00a0the statement<\/a>\u00a0said that those who have been hired by junket operators must safeguard their labour rights by themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tak Chun said\u00a0its affected employees will receive higher compensation than that contemplated by the Labour Relations Law<\/strong>, including one month\u2019s additional basic salary, seniority compensation, provident funds-for employees who have served for three years-and unapplied paid annual leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three legislators have asked authorities to protect the labour rights of Macau residents who have been affected by the closure of VIP rooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Legislators in Macau are urging authorities to establish special procedures to safeguard the labour rights of workers impacted by the recent closures of VIP rooms, notably those operated by Suncity Group Holdings and Tak Chun. The closures, stemming from regulatory scrutiny and arrests related to cross-border gambling, have left numerous employees facing unemployment and difficulties in accessing benefits or new job opportunities. Concerns are raised regarding the proactive response of the Macau Labour Affairs Bureau in assisting these displaced workers.","focusai_entities":"Suncity Group Holdings, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, Tak Chun, Macau Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Ngan Iek Hang, Ella Lei Cheng I, Jose Pereira Coutinho","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Junket Regulatory Impact","query":"What specific amendments to Macau's labour laws or regulatory frameworks are being considered to better protect employees during significant industry restructuring or enforcement actions against licensed operators and junkets?"},{"label":"DSAL Proactive Measures","query":"How will the Macau Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) enhance its proactive intervention and support mechanisms to ensure timely assistance and fair compensation for workers affected by future large-scale operational disruptions in the gaming sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-25627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25627"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25632,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627\/revisions\/25632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}